A purchasing document is a contractually binding document between a buying organization (“buyer”) and a selling organization (“supplier”). Generally there can be many types of purchasing documents. For example, a standard purchase order includes a specific product the buyer desires and a delivery date of the specific product desired by the purchaser. Another type of purchasing document, a blanket agreement, may be a long term contract that indicates a particular product, a negotiated price for the particular product, and a particular duration for how long the product may be supplied to the buyer. Yet another type of purchasing document is a contract purchasing agreement. With a contract purchasing agreement, a buyer does not indicate a specific product, but simply indicates that a product is needed in, for example, a given year.
A purchasing document can contain information pertaining to goods and/or services that a buyer commits to buy. For example, a purchasing document can include a specific product the buyer desires, a quantity of the specific product, and a price of the specific product. Attributes such as item, quantity, and price, are relevant to suppliers because these attributes enable suppliers to execute their obligations. These types of attributes on the purchasing document, which are relevant to suppliers, are called “supplier facing attributes.”
In addition to supplier facing attributes, a purchasing document also contains attributes that are required for administrative purposes within the buying organization. For example, a purchasing document can include cost centers or projects that fund the purchase, internal delivery instructions, or a set of tolerances and controls to ensure satisfactory order execution. These types of attributes are called “internal control attributes.”
Evolving business conditions often necessitate modifications to a purchasing document. A document may undergo multiple modifications during its lifecycle. The scope of the modification may include attributes from both sets: supplier facing attributes and internal control attributes. Modifications to a purchasing document can be categorized into two types: internal changes and external changes. An internal change includes a change to at least one internal control attribute, and does not include any changes to supplier facing attributes. An external change either includes a change to at least one supplier facing attribute, or a change to at least one supplier facing attribute and a change to at least one internal control attribute.
Being a contractually binding document, organizations are required to track changes to supplier facing attributes. Typically, such changes need to be communicated and agreed upon by suppliers before they are made effective. However, even absent any contractual requirements to track modifications that only include changes to internal control attributes, it is also desired to track and keep historical record of modifications that only include changes to internal control attributes. This is true in light of recent laws and regulations (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act), that organizations are mandated to adhere.